Facing a grilling about her staff — who are under investigation by the AFP over a hamfisted attempt to smear Bill Shorten — Michaelia Cash flipped out and made a hamfisted attempt to smear Bill Shorten’s female staff. Penny Wong heard about it, marched into the committee room, unloaded on Cash, and forced her to withdraw. (You need to see the video to fully appreciate how fearsome Wong can be.)

But what about the rumours Cash threatened to spread? The Guardian was baffled:

No one I have spoken to, or anyone in this office has spoken to, has any idea who or what she was talking about.

As a minister in the former government, Mr Shorten was the subject of rumours spread by the Coalition that he had had an affair with a staffer called Shannon who became pregnant. The rumours persisted even though Shannon was male.

Samantha Maiden confirmed that the “rumour that Bill Shorten had impregnanted a man was truly one of the great Parliamentary world exclusives”. Perhaps spreading it will be the end of Cash’s career.